Another quiet Sunday. Watched a lacrosse game for eight year old girls at nine o'clock this morning, and that was pretty much my athletic endeavor for the day.
Except for getting to the game and back on the parkway.
Driving often makes me think of a standing difference of opinion I have with others about whether professional auto racing is a sport. A significant number of people I know believe that it is. I simply don't. My position is that anyone who can drive a car, has some stamina and doesn't have a phobia about going continuously around in the same circle can race a car.
The key word to me here is "sport". I think a sport entails particular athletic talents. In baseball, for instance, one is required to throw, catch, and hit the ball, as well as run, slide, jump, twist and turn and keep one's balance depending on the situation and position that's played. To me, that takes some athletic talent.
Football also requires running, throwing, receiving, blocking, tackling, while stamina and physical strength are needed too. Similarly, particular abilities are needed for basketball, tennis, hockey, skiing, soccer and the like. You might even throw in examples such as ice-skating and golf, which I think are on the line between true sports and hobbies or pastimes.
Then we come back to auto-racing. What kind of athletic ability is really needed to sit behind the wheel of a moving car? Some say it's the speed that counts. But, my next question then is, which really takes more talent, a driver among others who spend their entire lives on "professional" tracks, with banked curves, smooth straight-aways and the knowledge that everyone else involved drives the same way at similar speeds, or someone following a young mother on a busy expressway?
The mom has a pile of grocery bags beside her, blocking her side-view mirror, one, two, three or more little kids jumping up and down and screaming. And then there's the dog in the way-back of the ten thousand pound SUV. But, those are just minor distractions, and she'll block all of those possible interferences out. Because, if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on what the person was saying that she's conversing with on the cell-phone.
What's more is, if the one she's conversing happens to be her spouse, it's likely she'll have to put a "sticky pad" on the dashboard, to be able to jot down what he wants for dinner, meaning that she'll have to steer her truck with her knees.
Now, I'll ask you once more. In the preceding scenario's which person needs, and usually demonstrates, more athletic talent? I believe, the only other one's in the world whom have more driving skills than these moms, are the drivers behind them. Because, the moms are the one's making all the decisions. As their byplay with their kids and animals go on, and the talks on the cell-phones, and the taking of notes, their vehicles speed up, slow down, veer left and right, or perhaps make a sudden turn out of nowhere (god forbid they should signal.) So, anyone behind them has to have the reflexes of a cornered mouse facing a starving cat. And that, my friends, really takes some talent.
That leaves me with one more "athletic" thought. The Kentucky Derby ran yesterday afternoon. I'm not a horse-racing fan, so I paid very little attention. Frankly, I don't remember the name of whoever won. But, in this so-called "sport of kings" who are the athletes? That is, if there's any athleticism involved, other than being able to hold on to the reins of a racing horse and not fall out of the saddle. Since it's also obvious to everyone that the owner's have no athletic skills whatsoever, and the jockeys don't seem to do very much at all, I guess we have the answer. The athlete is the horse.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
No comments:
Post a Comment